Neill Dela Llana laughs frequently – not an "I am being interviewed" nervous laugh, more an "I've made a movie and a press guy notices" laugh.

Raised in San Diego, the Filipino-American recently turned 32. He has actually made four feature films with friend and partner Ian Gamazon, who lives in L.A. "Cavite" is a Filipino (in English) entry in the San Diego Asian Film Festival and will fill a screen at 8:15 p.m. tomorrow (and again at 9 p.m. Wednesday) in the UltraStar Mission Valley plex at the Hazard Center.

Dela Llana will be there, believing the 80-minute thriller "shows us developing as writers, maturing as filmmakers." And it shows the enthusiasm that brought him and Gamazon together as high-school students and then collegians, as well as the budget constraints that the Chula Vista resident describes after one of his most amiable laughs:

"We like to say it was made by two guys, a camera and two plane tickets. We spent about $10,000, total. I work as a contractor for the Navy. We knew we could stretch the budget in the Philippines. We doubled up on everything, even a second camera in case anything broke down or got ripped off.

"In fact, we had almost no problems. This one began with us talking on cell phones about movies, which we do nightly, and I asked Ian what would happen if you were kidnapped by cell phone. It evolved into something like the movie 'Cellular,' but in the Philippines with terrorists."

With no real crew – the second camera was sold as soon as they returned to pay for editing – they filmed "guerrilla style, just running around. But we hope for commercial distribution. Or at least DVD. We were scheduled to take it to a festival in the Philippines this autumn, but for some reason the whole thing got canceled."

He knows that his widely extended family supports his work, that no studio breathes down his neck, and that the Asian fest is a good niche for his kind of movie. After all, "Cavite" is truly done: "If we could afford any changes, we might fly back and make a few. But . . . "

A "Navy brat" who spent some young days in his ancestral islands, and whose dad retired to San Diego in 1985, Dela Llana went to Montgomery High, then Southwestern College. He transferred to San Diego State University but dropped out before grad time to pursue the movie dream, sharing auteur tasks (well, all tasks) with Gamazon. Children of the video age, they met in high school in 1990, and both were impressed by Kevin Smith's up-from-zero success:

"We were very impressed that he made 'Clerks' for $20,000. Those no-budget indies like 'El Mariachi' really got us going. In a high school class, we made a short film and realized there was a career in this. We're still doing it, just not getting paid for it!"

In the Roger Corman if not quite Ed Wood tradition, they have four or five scripts "already written in hopes someone will find them interesting and want to finance. We're not limited to thrillers."

Surely not. Past visions realized include their 1994 feature debut "Diego's Stories" ("a twisted romantic comedy"), "The Book" ("a sort of campy sci-fi in black and white") and "Freud's Second Law" ("a sort of revenge film"). Their work made it to New York and Los Angeles festivals. Destiny still calls, if sometimes on a poor connection.

Where there is celluloid, or good digital, they will forge ahead. "Cavite" underwent the sort of inspiration that defines a burgeoning aesthetic:

"The script had a certain structure, but we had to improvise. The lead part was originally written for a female actor, but no Filipino-American woman we met wanted to go there and shoot in the slums. So Ian became the star."